Dems Balk at Warren's Latest Overreach

BOSTON -- Fellow Democrats are balking at Elizabeth Warren's latest ill-informed crusade, after she stretched the truth for some quick headlines on the issue recently. Warren is demagoguing local auto-dealers and calling for a vast expansion of regulatory authority that even her fellow Democrats can't get behind. This comes on the heels of Warren earning "Four Pinocchios" from the Washington Post's fact-checkers related to a dubious claim about auto-dealer markups.

"Even Democrats see that Elizabeth Warren's ineffective and ill-informed public crusades are a waste of time, so it is no surprise that she has failed to get any support on this latest overreach," said MassGOP Chairman Kirsten Hughes."Warren's inability to get even fellow Democrats on board with this headline-grabbing fight, combined with her trouble with the facts, indicate she is simply an ineffective public servant for Massachusetts and the country."

Background:

Elizabeth Warren has failed to attract the support of even a single Democrat in her crusade to vastly expand federal regulatory authority and attack local auto-dealers.

"Warren has spent the past six weeks calling for stronger government oversight of dealers’ loans to car buyers, which are often the largest kind of unregulated debt consumers have. She is now trying to drum up support for a measure to bring lending at dealerships under the control of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Warren's demagoguery on the issue previously earned "Four Pinocchios" from fact-checkers at the Washington Post.

"How accurate is this $26 billion figure and is Warren describing it correctly?...Warren incorrectly characterizes it. She claimed that the study showed “auto dealer markups cost consumers $26 billion a year.” But Kukla acknowledged that this figure includes compensation for dealers who arranged the loans for car buyers....But besides citing a faulty number, Warren misleadingly says it represents “auto dealer markups.” The group that produced the report said that figure includes reasonable compensation owed to car dealers. She earns Four Pinocchios." (Glenn Kessler, "Warren’s false claim that ‘auto dealer markups cost consumers $26 billion a year,'" Washington Post, 5/5/15)